Pumpkin Lizard

I tried the Freeloader’s cousin “The Mayor” Sunday night. I bought the bigger size. I was headed to a lake where I was running into some wipers and I thought it would be good and it was. It swims like a small Magdraft paired on the VMC Boxer Jig. Good tail action and that wobble. Results were a lost LM that was easily 4, and a few others. Also a mess of wipers. I burned through half the package. My only beef is that after a few fish they really don’t stay rigged in place well. It outfished the Rat L Trap and the 25 dollar Jerkbait I was also using.

I live in Missouri too but on the other side. I fish around KC and in the Northwest. I got back into bass fishing recently and there was an interesting learning curve for me because most of the places I bass fished in the past didn't have shad. For a while I was still not getting much because I was using the wrong presentations or using the wrong sized baits. Once I started trying to figure out and find the shad and the baits, I started finding active feeders and my luck improved. When I can't do that, I'm fishing creature baits on rugby jigs or shad imitation on a jig. It's been tough at times late this summer and this fall because it's always sunny and we haven't had many overcast days. Most of the best action can be in the morning or in the evening, but by jigging through the day I find them and they are in fact exactly where you usually expect them to be. So many of the lakes and ponds I fish seem literally infested with shad and carp. I think with so many shad being available the fish are also just really well fed, and it's probably harder to attract and trigger fish that have such easy access to food all around them.

https://www.bassresource.com/

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It's fairly popular outside of Michigan. The reason for the heavy leader isn't just for the strikes and the chance at a bigger fish. It's really hard to turn over a big air resistant fly on a fine diameter tippet.

There was a soft plastic lipless crankbait that Mann's used to make. That thing was money.

This is true. Once browns get to 13-14 inches they start needing food like crawdads and things with a spinal cord. The streamers I use for big trout are big swimbait size. Almost always articulated. I think they work better than conventional tackle too. Honestly I wonder if a frog would do the trick and then you don't need the bobber. When I lived in Wisconsin I knew a guy who fished the same spring creek region as me and he kept a fish every now and then to in part to see what they were eating. He usually kept 13-14 inchers and he almost always found mouse remains in the stomach. In nearby Iowa we could fish 12 months a year and the trout he caught would have mouse even in the dead of winter. It's not just a novelty. There is a fairly famous creek in Iowa loaded with wild browns that I fly fished all winter. The browns would stack up under the bridge in winter and I watched a 14-15 incher eating another fish, likely a trout that was easily 9 inches. It was almost like watching a snake eat something big.

I bet a ned would slay. It looks almost exactly like a mop fly which is intended to imitate a crane fly larvae. Which gives me an idea. I bet a mop fly tied on a Ned jig would be tremendous for almost anything with fins.

A brown trout will literally hit anything a bass will go for. Jointed Rapalas in particular. They are super carnivorous. Almost nothing beats a silver Phoebe. It's a cheat code if you are gear fishing for trout.

Yeah. I don't fish with any sort of electronics right now. I actually use it on the VMC Boxer jig not the hybrid. I fish it deep, shallow. I do a rolling, shaking retrieve and it works. I hop it and it works. It's durable, I love it. When I see pods of shad I'll cast into it and it works. The other Crush City product I like is the Ned BLT. It seems to outfish the TRD for me. I have a TRD in identical colors. If Jacob Wheeler made those then he really is a savant.

Yup. First keeper bass I ever caught was in '90s on purple mister twister with a lead head. There isn't much new under the sun. Can't wait for the next trend which will be finesse jitterbug topwater fishing.

Yes. Lately I have been using the Crush City Freeloader on a VMC Hybrid jig.

After many years of epic fishing, my personal childhood bass pond growing up inevitably became overpopulated with stunted bass. They were much smaller than 13 inches. You could throw a bare 1/0 hook into the water and catch 9 inch bass with ease. Still a few broke through and grew large. We fixed the problem by transplanting some Pike from the Housatonic which couldn’t reproduce. I would say there is not enough information here to answer your question.

Ned Rigs are fantastic. There is a wrong way to fish it, but that way still catches fish and I am probably doing it wrong. I use three retrieves. Dragging on the bottom, with some hops. Big Hops off the bottom with some pauses and an active retrieve with brief pauses. I have more luck with Crush City NED BLTs than I do with the Z Man TRDs.

Last night there was a pretty good mayfly emergence and as they were returning to water to lay eggs the bluegills were out in force eating the mayflies and the bass were eating the bluegills. It was pretty good. This pond also has a fair amount of shad.

Bluegill don't ball up typically in my observations. The little ones that the bass like hide around cover looking scared all the time. You can see them in super shallow water in the weeds and I would imagine they are further out in the weeds too. I've seen bass cruising along the bank stopping periodically to scan for victims. Usually in the late afternoon and evenings. If I see bass busting in super shallow water I assuming they are smashing bluegills/bream. I assume the same thing is happening in slightly deeper water in the weeds and I just can't see it. I think they are an important source of food for them. I think bass targeting bluegill are probably just opportunistic too so it's not like you need to match the hatch. Nice video of a bass feeding on bluegill.

Ahh the Housy. I see quite a few non English speaking inmogrants on the Trout Management Area on the CT side keeping trout (illegally) and smallmouth bass. I just point at the signs and explain in Spanish that they are eating poison and I just get a blank stare. There might not be a better smallmouth river in America.

Does anyone have any updates? I found his channel independently from this place. Really really good stuff and I think he has some novel insights. I particularly liked the one where he is fishing a pond that had temporarily merged with a trout stream. It was great to see underwater footage of brown trout bossing a largemouth around. I don’t think anyone else has that. I hope he is ok.

Many many more people eat produce. And the stuff that might be in some bottom dwelling fish might take years to add up in your body. Still a hard pass for me. No way jose. If the Walking Dead ever happens I'm probably starving to death.

You can wash produce. It's definitely not worse than eating something that literally lives in humanity's effluent and feeds on the bottom almost exclusively. The mercury levels.. I'm not touching that.

Not even remotely the same.

You could probably go into the Rockies, catch as many non native brook trout as you want and eat 100% safe. I don't see how people can eat things like catfish with all of the industrial and ag runoff.

Well, not all of us fortunate enough to live where there are Pike or Musky, they are few and far in between. I run into Pike in CT but that's because I am Pike Fishing, but I usually am fly fishing for the those.

Do Shaky Heads snag less than Neds?

Buy good quality spinnerbaits and avoid the el cheapo ones if you can. They higher quality ones seem to run better for me and get out of tune less. It's not like you lose lots of spinnerbaits so it's sound investment. Something I have always had is one spinnerbait with colorado blades that I spray paint black. I'll use this one after dark.